Cooperative development and research in rural areas has traditionally focused on the agriculture sector. While agricultural cooperatives have been, and still are, key actors for rural areas, cooperatives in other sectors have developed and are gaining increasing presence and attention as key actors for rural and community development. This chapter focuses on cooperatives based in different rural areas of Europe and operating in diverse sectors, including, but not limited to, renewable energy, work integration, credit, and retailing. These rural cooperatives are characterised by their territorial embeddedness, the provision of local products and services, a focus on the most disadvantaged groups and/or the integrated development of their communities and areas. In this chapter, we focus on a special type of cooperative which has developed mainly in rural areas, i.e. the community cooperative. We explore the potential and limitations of these cooperatives in European rural areas as place-based rural development actors and in the context of the International Cooperative Alliance – Cooperative Identity principles in particular, Principle 7 which stresses the relevance of cooperatives for the sustainable development of their communities.